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Writing on delivery, agile and the craft of shipping.

Field notes from managing complex technical projects: what works, what fails, and why.

Latest

6 min read

Performance Feedback HR Can Act On: A Guide for IT PMs

Feedback HR can act on names measurable achievements, ties them to review criteria, and reads clearly to a reviewer who never met the employee.

  • performance-reviews
  • feedback
  • project-management
career

Worklog Audit: How to Formalise a Job Description Nobody Wrote

7 min read
emotional-intelligence

Emotional Intelligence in Project Management Is Not a Soft Skill

7 min read

Editor's picks

pmp

Studying for the PMP While Working: EVM, Risk and Leadership

7 min read
agile-delivery

Sprint Planning Email: The Template That Prevents Follow-Ups

7 min read
client-communication

Acknowledgement Tickets and Sprint Closure Notes Clients Read

6 min read

All articles

7 min read

BRD vs PRD: What Actually Belongs in Each Document

BRD vs PRD: the BRD holds business justification, scope and sign-off. The PRD holds features, user stories and acceptance criteria.

  • requirements
  • documentation
  • scope-management
5 min read

Client-Facing Tickets: The Template I Use to Stop Scope Creep

Client-facing tickets need five sections: summary, business justification, acceptance criteria, out of scope, and timeline. Here is the template.

  • client-communication
  • documentation
  • scope-management
6 min read

Dashboard Sprawl: Why Fewer Dashboards Mean Better Decisions

Dashboard sprawl causes decision paralysis. Fewer, better dashboards, each tied to one decision and one decision-maker, beat more visibility.

  • dashboards
  • data-driven-delivery
  • reporting
7 min read

Power BI vs Custom Dashboard: When to Build Your Own Layer

Power BI vs a custom dashboard comes down to four factors: cost, audience skill, data change frequency, and integration needs. How to decide.

  • power-bi
  • reporting
  • dashboards
8 min read

Capacity Management Template: Lessons From an API That Fought Back

Building a capacity management template on a spreadsheet breaks at scale. Batch the API calls, add backoff and logging, then move to a database.

  • capacity-management
  • resource-management
  • api-integration
7 min read

Utilisation Reporting: Why Flat Percentages Mislead

Flat utilisation percentages mislead. Trend the number over time, add qualitative check-ins, and report planned and reactive work separately.

  • resource-management
  • utilisation-reporting
  • project-management
7 min read

Skills-Based Resource Planning: Beyond Who's Free This Sprint

Skills-based resource planning asks who has capacity and the right expertise, not just who is free. How to tag skills and keep the inventory current.

  • resource-planning
  • project-management
  • it-delivery
7 min read

Client Escalation Playbook: Turning 'You Failed to Deliver' Around

Turn a 'you failed to deliver' claim into a defensible conversation: gather delivery evidence, lead with facts, and co-create a recovery plan.

  • client-management
  • escalation-management
  • project-management
7 min read

Managing Configuration Data Across Two Systems for One Client

Managing configuration data across two systems needs a structured cross-reference, a fix for tooling limits, and an exception workflow for stray records.

  • data-governance
  • configuration-management
  • it-delivery